MONTEREY &GT;&GT; Forbes announced Wednesday it would host a "Reinventing America" summit in Salinas next summer at an agriculture technology event at the Monterey Plaza Hotel.

Forbes Media chief operating officer Mike Federle told the crowd of roughly 200 people at the Ag Tech Summit, that Forbes first thought of having its summit in Iowa — before Steinbeck Innovation Foundation co-founder John Hartnett convinced him otherwise.

"We believe this is one of the major business stories that needs to be told and will be told," Federle said of the growth of technology in Salinas Valley agriculture.

The July 2015 summit does not have a set location or date yet. The last Reinventing America summit, which typically focuses on innovation and disruption in the country's industrial heartland, was held in Chicago in March.

Hartnett said the "multi-million dollar" Forbes summit would have about 700 attendees and draw major media and business attention.

A second announcement at the Plaza event was the introduction of a so-called Thrive Accelerator, which Hartnett describes as a "highly selective, mentorship and investment" program which will select 10 start-up companies to develop their business with direct access to top agriculture and technology companies.

The eight-week program can equal up to $5 million in funding and participants can pitch the idea at the Forbes summit. Applications are already being accepted at ThriveAccelerator.com.

The summit at the Plaza was sponsored by the Steinbeck Innovation Foundation, SVG Partners, Forbes and Salinas. It featured two dozen speakers on a variety of topics.

"The strength of this region is sitting in this room," Hartnett told the crowd.

Much of the talks sounded more like they came out of Philip K. Dick novel than a John Steinbeck classic.

Dave Evans, former Cisco Systems chief futurist, suggested there could be robots smarter than humans by 2032 and predicted an increased use of robots in the field.

"We're going to see these instruments working alongside these farmers," he said.

Deborah Magid, director of the IBM Venture Capital Group, talked about new ways to get capital, such as crowd-funding website AgFunder, and what type of companies investors are looking at. One example is RealVNC, which links to tractors in the field using smartphones to collect data, and Intelleflex, which uses sensors to track the movement of produce to more accurately predict shelf life.

Luis Alvarez, CEO of Alvarez Technology Group, said drones would soon be used in fields.

"This drone is being used in Japan and Australia right now to deliver fertilizer, to deliver pesticides, to monitor farms," he said of the Yamaha RMAX. "You can't use them commercially in the United States because the (Federal Aviation Administration) hasn't changed the rules . . . but that's changing."

Peter WIlliams of IBM's Big Green Innovations described a project in Palo Alto which added sensors to trees to track roots as they moved toward gas mains.

"How long before we can do that per lettuce? Or per strawberry plant?" he said.

Grower-Shipper Association of Central California head Jim Bogart said during a brief break between speakers it was important to keep up with technological trends.

"It's not the future. It's now," he said.

The Wednesday summit was paid for by Dole, Taylor Farms, Royal Rose, Chiquita, Verizon, JVSmith companies, Mann's Packaging and Salinas.

Salinas City Manager Ray Corpuz said the city gave $5,000 for the event out its economic development fund. The $1 million fund was given to the city by Capital One after it closed and nearly 1,000 workers lost their jobs.

Money from the fund also helped kickstart the Steinbeck Innovation Foundation. For roughly a year, its co-founder Hartnett, and others, have been pushing the idea Silicon Valley and Salinas Valley would combine to develop a booming economic business cluster.

Google has yet to set up shop in the middle of a Salinas field, but Hartnett said the fruits of the idea are more subtle.

"We're at the execution phase," he said. "There's been a lot of pontification about connecting the Silicon Valley and Salinas Valley but now we're really doing it."

He pointed to this being the first Ag Tech Summit at the Plaza, Verizon and other companies attending and a growing awareness of the Salinas Valley as examples.